Tesco
Since 2013 I have played a central role at Tesco, firstly contracting as acting Head of Design for Tesco.com before joining full time in 2015 as Creative Lead for their UK Marketing Communications team.
In that time I have built and led Tesco’s in-house creative team that now delivers a vast range of multichannel work
supporting our numerous seasonal and always-on campaigns.
The examples below showcase just a few highlights from my time at the heart of the UK’s largest retailer.
Christmas
Without doubt, Christmas is by some margin the most important seasonal campaign for Tesco and our preparations require an all-year -round effort. My responsibility for Christmas, and all our seasonal campaigns, is twofold:
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To work with brand teams and agencies to develop guidelines and assets that are fit-for-purpose to bring the campaign to life across throughout our communications, and
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To then ensure that my team executes our comms briefs (across numerous channels, both on and offline) consistently and correctly in line with the standards set out in the guidelines
Food Love Stories
One of Tesco’s most celebrated campaigns in recent years has been Food Love Stories which launched in early 2017 and has remained always-on ever since. This award-winning campaign has been focused on reconnecting with our customers’ personal relationship with food and celebrating quality. My responsibility in this campaign was to work closely with our above-the-line agency BBH to ensure assets were created fit for purpose and devise guidelines to ensure that the campaign landed consistently and effectively across our digital channels. Latterly, my team has been tasked with finding innovative new ways to re-energise the campaign in-store, experimenting with new media such as floor projections and even augmented reality.
Centenary
In 2019, Tesco marked it’s centenary with a campaign that pulsed throughout the year, celebrating 100 years of great value. Working with our above-the-line agency BBH, the campaign was driven by promotional offers with ‘Prices that take you back’ visualised by introducing British cultural characters from the last century such as Mr Blobby, Morph and Rollergirl. My challenge was to ensure that the campaign was realised consistently and impactfully across our owned channels such as email, social and outdoor digital media.
Covid-19 response
Without doubt the work I am most proud of during my time at Tesco has been in our response to the Covid-19 outbreak. Faced with urgent and unprecedented demand, in the first three months of the pandemic our Creative Services team delivered 50 online updates, 14 customer service emails and over 180 elements of Point of Sale, many of which were utilised by the pop-up Tesco stores at the emergency NHS Nightingale Hospitals commissioned to treat the sick. As a result, it felt as though the work we produced truly made a difference and this was reflected in Tesco’s brand perception, which has never been better.
Jamie Oliver partnership
Over the past three years, Tesco have entered a partnership with Jamie Oliver who takes the helm in our Health communications, encouraging customers to eat more veg and introduce ‘healthy little swaps’. I was tasked with devising a brand toolkit to ensure that our Jamie Oliver comms were delivered consistently across our channels, out of home,
in-store and online.
Pride
Tesco has had a long association with the annual Pride parades across the UK, as an official sponsor in supporting the LGBTQ+ community. Each year, we explore innovative and helpful ways to celebrate the event and my creative team play a central part in producing our multichannel comms to support across press, in-store and social media.